Thuram keeps Juve in the Champions League race

Playing bad or good, Juventus has one certainty – they do not lose to Bologna. In their last 25 league games, the Turin giants managed 17 wins and eight draws against tonight‘s opponent and the streak continued after 90 minutes: Bologna – Juventus 1-1. Since Massimiliano Allegri arrived as coach in 2021, former Serie A champions are playing unwatchable football, and it continued with the next two coaches, Thiago Motta and now Igor Tudor. As if nobody is capable to get the best out of expensive Juve stars, on at least set up some tactics which will result in nice, attacking, free-flowing football. Tudor was brought in as a ‘fire fighter‘ in order to make sure that the club is not out of the Champions League and as long as he manages that, nobody is complaining about the quality of football, which is terrible.

After tonight‘s draw, the former Marseille coach is one step closer to his goal, as Juve is now in fourth place and will play with two weaker teams (Udinese, Venezia) in the last three rounds. On the other hand, Bologna, also in contention for the fourth place will have a tougher schedule and they will be disappointed for not managing a victory against a direct rival at their own ground. It‘s a legitimate question if Juventus would score at all if it wasn‘t for Skorupski‘s weak reaction. It was ninth minute when Cambiaso passed the ball to Khephren Thuram. His powerful left-footed shot from the edge of the penalty area could have been saved, but Bologna keeper only managed to touch the ball that ended up in the back of his net for an early Juve lead. And that was basically it for the first half of football. Bologna appealed for a penalty in the 30th minute, when Freuler was brought down by McKennie, but the referee didn‘t even bother to check VAR, although replay showed that there was a contact.

Juve had two goal nullified over offside, one in the first (Nico Gonzalez) and the other one in the second half (Cambiaso). The other situation was much more dangerous as VAR showed that Juve wing back was inches in offside. But Bologna kept attacking and the reward for their efforts came in the 54th minute, when Freuler was the most cunning in the penalty area and put the ball into the net for the equalizer. Juventus had a clear and favorable chance 15 minutes from time, but young Alberto Costa slipped from five meters just as he was preparing to put the ball past Skorupski. That was basically the end of any excitement in this game, as Juve closed down any approach to their goal and didn‘t fancy attacking Bologna at all.

SERIE A - MATCHDAY 35

Friday

Torino - Venezia 1-1 (0-1)

/Vlasic 77 pen - Perez 37/

Saturday

Cagliari - Udinese 1-2 (1-1)

/Zortea 35 - Zarraga 27, Kristensen 67/

Parma - Como 0-1 (0-0)

/Strefezza 79/

Lecce - Napoli 0-1 (0-1)

/Raspadori 24/

Inter - Verona 1-0 (1-0)

/Asllani 9 pen/

Sunday

Empoli - Lazio 0-1 (0-1)

/Dia 1/

Monza - Atalanta (0-2)

/De Ketelaere 12, 23/

Roma - Fiorentina 1-0 (1-0)

/Dovbyk 45+5/

Bologna - Juventus 1-1 (0-1)

/Freuler 54 - Thuram 9/

Monday

21.45: (4.70) Genoa (3.50) Milan (1.80)

***odds are subject to change***